


Bruises

by AgentCarter15



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Brief Violence, F/M, Tumblr request, nothing graphic, slight mentions of abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-29 07:20:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6364675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentCarter15/pseuds/AgentCarter15
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All bruises heal with time and love</p>
<p> </p>
<p>[Tumblr request]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bruises

 It’s nearly midnight when the twins enter the empty common room, laughing and high-fiving each other over a successful midnight prank. At least, the common room _appears_ empty. You freeze in your corner as they walk in, fighting to stifle the heavy sobs that have been escaping you the last hour or so. You’ve become friends with the Weasley twins over the past few months, but you certainly don’t want them to catch you now. Thankfully, you had asked to borrow Harry’s invisibility cloak this morning, so they can’t see you. Now you just have to pray they can’t hear you. Apparently your prayers don’t work, as Fred suddenly goes quiet and holds out his arm to stop his brother.

 “George, you hear something?” Fred whispers, and George frowns in concentration.

 “No, I don’t hear any-” He pauses when you fail to stop a loud sniffle. The twins exchange glances before making their way towards the noise.

 “Hello? Is anyone there? Harry, is that you?” Fred calls out hoarsely as the two crouch directly in front of you. You recoil slightly as Fred reaches out and manages to catch hold of the cloak. He lifts it up, and both boys’ faces flicker from confusion over you not being Harry to concern as they notice your emotional state. You hastily wipe your eyes, trying for a casual smile. Fred frowns.

 “(Y/n)? Are you alright?” He asks concerned, but it quickly turns to a gasp when he catches sight of your cheek. “Bloody hell, what happened to your face?” You quickly bring your hand up to your cheek, turning away from them. You’d forgotten about it, and you pray it doesn’t look too bad yet. But the look in the twins’ eyes tells you that’s a useless prayer.

 “It’s nothing, I couldn’t sleep so I came down here but I tripped on the stairs. That’s-that’s why I’m crying…” you finish lamely. You doubt they’ll buy it but there’s no way you’re going to tell them the truth. You quickly stand up and brush past them. “I’d better get to bed, goodnight.” You rush up the stairs and quietly stow the cloak under your bed before climbing in. You touch your cheek gently before burying your face into your pillow with another sob.

 

 

 Downstairs, George turns to his brother in confusion.

 “Did that bruise look like what I thought it looked like?”

 “If by that you mean a bloody _handprint_ , then yes. That’s exactly what it looked like,” Fred grinds out harshly. George looks horrified.

 “Who would do that to her?”

 “I might have an idea, but by Merlin I hope I’m wrong. But whoever it is, I swear to you, George, they’re not going to get away with that.” The two boys head to bed, faces set, determined to find out who hurt you and make them pay.

 

 

 

 The next morning, you’re up before anyone else. You stand in the bathroom staring at the hand-shaped bruise on your face, fighting back another round of tears. It’s not even that it hurts that bad, you’ve had others before this that hurt worse. But those were all able to be hidden by your robes. This, however, is out in plain sight for everyone to see. You might as well have a huge sign on your forehead that reads, _I’m being abused by my boyfriend_. You sink to the floor when you think of Draco, of how stupid you were last year. It had all started off so wonderful. Valentine’s Day, you’d gotten together. And he was so mysterious, charming even, and it was fun to have someone to be with. But when you came back after summer break and didn’t want to be with him anymore because you didn’t want to be in a relationship that you knew wouldn’t ever be serious for you, he’d turned violent. He started to yell at you, threaten you, to stay with him. You kept saying you didn’t want to, and he began to hit you. He accused you of finding someone else, and no matter how much you tried to tell him you hadn’t, he wouldn’t listen. The only reason you’re still with him is because he threatened to hurt your friends if you didn’t stay with him. So you stay, but everyday he hurts you, and yesterday was the first time he’d hit your face.

 You stand up again, swallowing down the tears, and set to work disguising the handprint on your face. Hopefully, you think, you can make it look like a simple bruise. You can stick with the story you told the twins, that you simply tripped on the stairs. It should work. It has to.

 

 

 

 The rest of the day, you keep your hair and head down, and avoid the twins like the plague. It works until they finally corner you after dinner in one of the empty hallways. You keep your eyes on the floor, turning your bruised cheek away from them.

 “Leave me alone,” you mumble weakly, but Fred just crosses arms.

 “No.”

 “Yeah, (Y/n), we know someone hit you, we just want to help.” You shake your head violently.

 “Just go away, please!” Fred suddenly places his hand on your shoulder and you shy away, flinching. He quickly pulls it away with a gasp.

 “Merlin…” he whispers, horrified. He looks to George, who looks like he’s about to cry. “(Y/n), whoever hit you, is this… Does it happen a lot?” You close your eyes at his soft tone, and against your better judgement, nod slowly. Fred slowly approaches you, and gently places his fingers under your chin. You flinch slightly, but stay still. He lifts your head to look at him. “I’m so sorry, (Y/n), I wish I had known. I could’ve helped you.”

 “No! I didn’t ever want anyone to know! No one was supposed to know! I-I’m sorry, I can’t do this.” You brush past him and take off down the hallway, not stopping when you hear them calling after you.

 You keep running, tears pouring from your eyes, until you bump into something. Or rather, someone. You look up and gasp in fear as you see who you’ve just bumped into. Draco. He grabs you firmly in his arms and smiles coldly at you.

 “There you are! I’ve been look-” his expression hardens when he hears Fred and George yelling your name from down the hall. “What do they want?” he hisses, shoving you into a nearby alcove.

 “N-nothing,” you stutter, “probably just help with h-homework.” He narrows his eyes at you and grabs your arm tightly, making you wince.

 “It’s one of them, isn’t it?” he growls. “One of them is the one you want to leave me for, eh?” You shake your head frantically, but he tightens his grip on your arms. “Which one? Which one is it? George?”

 “No! No, I don’t like George,” you whimper. He grins wickedly and pulls out his wand.

 “Oh, so it’s little Freddie, then. I guess I’ll just have to pay him a little visit!” He shoves you back against the wall and charges out of the alcove. You dive out after him. _I can’t let him hurt Fred_ , you think.

 “No!” You scream at him, launching yourself onto him and trying to rip away his wand. He growls angrily and swings his fist at you, catching you on the side of your head. You fall to the ground in a heap, as everything begins to fade into the background. Draco looms over you angrily, brandishing his wand. He kicks you in the side before pointing his wand at you. You close your eyes, waiting for the spell, but instead you hear Fred’s voice.

 “ _Expelliarmus_! Leave her alone, Malfoy!” You manage to open your eyes and see Fred and George facing a now-wandless Malfoy, their faces set in angry lines. “Step away from her. Now!” Draco just laughs and steps closer to them.

 “Or what? She’s my girlfriend, Weasley. I can do what I want.” Fred growls and drops his wand before launching himself at Draco and landing a sickening punch to his jaw. Draco stumbles back, reeling, and Fred glares at him.

 “She stopped being your girlfriend the second you hurt you. You have no right to touch her.” As if in defiance, Draco aims another kick at your ribs. You groan as white-hot pain flares in your side, and your vision begins to blur just as Fred lets out an angry yell. The last thing you see before you black out is Fred and George charging Draco with murderous looks in their eyes. Your last thought is that you hope they make him pay.

 

 

 

 

 You slowly open your eyes, groaning at the pounding in your head as the light hits them. You hear movement beside you, and you turn to see Fred sitting next to you, covered in bruises and small cuts. He smiles when he sees you’re awake.

 “Oh, good, you’re awake.” You wonder why he’s whispering, and it must show, because he smiles and points to the other side of your bed. You turn your head to see George sound asleep in a chair. “Shh, he’s been out for about ten minutes.” You turn back to Fred with a slight giggle, and he chuckles softly. But the events that just took place suddenly rush back into your mind, and your expression turns serious.

 “Fred, I-” Fred holds up his hand to stop you.

 “Don’t. I’m sorry this has been happening to you, and I wish I would’ve known sooner. But I know now, and it’s over. He won’t ever hurt you again,” he says softly, and tears gather in your eyes. He reaches out and grabs your hand in his.

 “How long have I been out?” you ask quietly. Fred shrugs.

 “Not very long, just a couple hours.” You nod before pointing to a particularly nasty cut on his forehead.

 “Are you alright?” Fred smirks as he puts a finger to the healing cut.

 “Right as rain. George and I both took just some minor bruising, nothing serious.” You breathe a sigh of relief.

 “And what about…” You can’t bring yourself to say his name, but you don’t even have to. Fred grits his teeth.

 “That slimy git?” His voice has turned hard and cold, and it would almost scare you if you didn’t feel a warm happiness over the fact that he’s so protective of you. You had never, ever let yourself think about it in the past, because of Draco, but now you think that maybe you’ve developed a crush on the oldest Weasley twin over the course of the past few months. You hide a smile as Fred continues passionately. “Don’t worry about him. He’ll be in the hospital wing for a while yet.” He jerks his thumb across the room, and you can just make out someone’s form lying in a bed on the far side of the hospital wing. Then Fred notices your smile. “What?”

 “What do you mean, what?”

 “Why are you smiling?” You chuckle slightly.

 “No reason.” Fred gives you a skeptical look before shrugging. He adopts a quieter, sheepish tone, and you can tell he’s trying to decide how to say something. “What is it?” you prod gently, and he sighs.

 “Why-why did he start to hurt you, just then when we showed up?” You swallow hard. You’d hoped this wouldn’t come up. For a second you think about lying to him, but one look in his eyes and you know you could never lie to him. You take a deep breath.

 “I just ran into him, and he heard you two calling from down the hall. H-he accused me of leaving him for…one of you, and he pulled out his wand and was going to hurt you guys. So I jumped after him and tried to stop him and that’s when he punched me, and you know the rest.” Fred is silent for a while after you tell him. He opens his mouth to speak, but you know what he’s going to say even before he says it, so you stop him. “Fred, don’t you dare blame yourself. He would’ve found out I talked to you no matter what, and he would’ve accused me no matter what. The outcome would’ve been the same whether you were following me or not,” you tell him firmly, and Fred finally nods. There’s more silence before he speaks again.

 “And…do you?” His voice is barely audible, as if he’s afraid to say the words out loud. He doesn’t have to explain further, you know exactly what he’s asking.

 “I’m not sure. I’ve never let myself think about anyone else since school started this year, I never wanted him to find out and hurt the person. But… If I think about it, I think, maybe, I do. Yes.” Your voice matches his, the slightest whisper, and you swallow hard as you finish. He keeps his eyes on your hands.

 “Is it-is it me or George?” he whispers awkwardly, and you have to fight the urge to snort. Keeping as straight a face as possible, you decide to mess with him. If he’s dumb enough to ask that, he deserves to get pranked.

 “George,” you whisper slowly, and you feel a pang of guilt as his face falls.

 “Oh.” You roll your eyes in annoyance.

 “Fred, you doofus, of course it’s you,” you tell him slightly exasperated, grinning when he looks up at you with a spark in his eye.

 “Oh. Well. Good. Because, well, I’ve… Um…” He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly, stumbling over his words, and you raise your eyebrows at him expectantly.

 “'Um’ what?”

 “What I mean to say is… That I-I-” He’s interrupted by a loud, annoyed groan, and you and Fred jump in surprise.

 “Would you just spit it out already, Freddie!” Your jaw drops in shock as you stare at George.

 “Have you been listening this whole time?” you gasp in shock, and George nods.

 “Yes, and cringing for that last bit. Let’s make this simple: (Y/n) likes Fred, Fred likes (Y/n). Now can I get some sleep please?” You burst into laughter at his words, while Fred looks like he’s about to murder his twin. You squeeze Fred’s hand and smile.

 “Is that what you were going to tell me?” you ask him gently, and Fred eventually nods. You grin widely and lace your fingers between his, making his eyes go wide. You quickly turn your attention back to George as if nothing had happened, to see him smirking happily.

 “Can I go to sleep now?” he whines again, and even Fred laughs this time.

 “Yes, Georgie, you can go to sleep,” you chuckle, and George squeals happily before flopping his head onto the side of your bed and proceeding to snore loudly. You and Fred exchange an eyeroll before lapsing into a comfortable silence, relishing in the feel of your hands intertwined. You lean back against your pillow with a sigh, and close your eyes. After a second, you feel Fred start to smooth your hair away from your forehead, and you start to doze off with a smile. For the first time in months, you feel happy, at peace, and excited to see what the future will bring.


End file.
